Being fearful is a very useful emotion in that it keeps us safe in times of real danger, for example running from unknown large barking dog. However, some fears can become irrational and develop into debilitating phobias, ranging from freezing each time you see a spider to an overwhelming fear of flying. Deeply buried in the subconscious mind is an irrational learnt behaviour, that drives the imagination to create these situations as very real physical threats.

Hypnotherapy and other techniques such as NLP can completely change the reaction to the above perceived threats e.g., by changing the belief of an arachnophobe, that a spider is abhorrent or dangerous, to the belief that it is completely harmless or even friendly! This is achieved by helping the sufferer to recognise the origin of their phobia and expose that it is a conditioned response, that can be progressively eradicated.

 

using regression to accesses the initial sensitising event is enough to diffuse it. Or hypnotic visualisation can be used effectively to enhance phobia desensitisation techniques. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing) can also be highly effective and fast for some clients, sometimes working in just 20 minutes.